Koexistenzen

Nine hundred years of community practiced in eleven villages of the Fiemme Valley in Trentino and South Tyrol by three linguistic groups: Italian, German, Ladin. Being responsible for common property has given rise to village agglomerations that share surprising similarities—beyond language affiliations and in anarchic, wild architectural manifestations. Are there in this composite realm—in which over the course of centuries a relatively strong sense of community has managed to survive and in whose urban context the village structures have clearly taken on an unorthodox form—still efforts to continue developing the “commons” idea, especially in terms of this specific and largely autonomous valley community? Does this unique communal urbanity even offer future-oriented perspectives?
Furthermore, with this project, which I have been working on for several years, I seek to generate an artistic approach that will help understand the archetype of the “commons” as a model—as a mindful management of the spatial resources of the community and its cities, including all the people who contribute to its lively continuance, to its ongoing reinterpretation.

Koexistenzen
Walter Niedermayr
Texts: Giorgio Falco, Florentina Hausknotz, preface Arno Ritter
Design: Von Mevis & Van Deursen, Amsterdam
Languages: German/English, Italian/German
Editor: aut. architektur und tirol, Innsbruck
Publisher: Hatje Cantz, Berlin
248 pages, 185 images
25,5 x 19,8 cm
hardcover
ISBN 978-3-7757-4390-7 (DE/EN)
ISBN 978-3-7757-4391-4 (IT/DE)